The Life-Giving Power of Listening to Those Who Care

The Life-Giving Power of Listening

Your words have tremendous potential and impact. There’s no doubt that your words can either bless or destroy a person. But, in this post, we’ll be discussing the power of listening to life-giving words! Listening is a key part of living a life worthwhile, and if you want to experience the wonderful benefits that comes to those who listen, then, read this post as I hope this will profoundly bless you.

The Life-Giving Power of Listening to Those Who Care

Listening is etched into every single person’s life. It could be through audible words, books, or sign language, but, everyone needs to receive words or things they can interpret so that they may function in everyday life. If you have a job, you need to listen to a specific set of instructions or if you’re a student, you need to listen to what the teacher says. Otherwise, your life’d be in chaos!

But, first, you’ve got to realize the undeniable, life-giving power of words. Because without the proper understanding of what words can do in your life, there’s no need to listen to what really matters.

Proverbs 18:21 King James Version (KJV)
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

The power of life-giving words is unpredictable!

If you love life, then loving the life-giving power of words is a no-brainer. If you don’t love life, then I advise you to read this post. It concerns the One, Jesus Christ, who being God, came in the flesh as a human being 2000 years ago and received the divine punishment for your every sin and mistake; He then rose again after three days so that you may be justified, redeemed, and blessed before the judgement throne of God. He did this because He believes your life holds significant value.

Romans 10:9 World English Bible (WEB)
that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

There’s a power in accepting words that are meant to uplift you. Receive life, not death.

Proverbs 4:20-22 World English Bible (WEB)
20 My son, attend to my words.
    Turn your ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from your eyes.
    Keep them in the center of your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them,
    and health to their whole body.

Listening to the God of Wisdom

How many of you out there, know that God thinks? God is a thinking God. He has emotions, He has a personality, and He made you in His image. Even more surprising, God thinks about you.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 King James Version (KJV)
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Seek Him!

God is thinking about you and His sole intention is for your good. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a mess of a person or a philanthropist, God loves you. And He revealed that when He came as Jesus Christ. He revealed that when He let Himself be skinned alive by whips and nails, all for your sake.

Jesus Christ did it for a reason, and I won’t be able to cover everything in this blog, but that’s why you’ve got to call upon Him, read His Word, pray to Him, and you’ll find out.

Furthermore, God is wise, He made the heavens and the Earth. He knows you inside and outside, so, if you want words that matter, words saturated with life, meaning, and hope, visit the Word of God.

John 6:63 World English Bible (WEB)
63 It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.

God is telling you, today, to listen to Him. Listen to what His Word says because what He says matters! And He has nothing but good things for you.

The Prince Who Opens the Ears of the Deaf

Matthew 11:5 World English Bible (WEB)
the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,Isaiah 35:5 the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.Isaiah 61:1-4

Back when Jesus Christ walked the Earth, He performed so many miracles. One of the main things He did was that He opened the ears of the deaf. God’s Word has so many layers and His Word can apply to the physical and figurative senses at the same time.

So, from a figurative context, if you have trouble with listening to the Word of God, ask Jesus to heal you. He will because He never denies a prayer in search for Him. If you’re physically deaf, ask Jesus for healing, He still performs miracles, even today, including the miracle of opening deaf ears. I talk more about it in this post.

Nevertheless, listen to what God has to say. And He’ll talk through the Bible, He’ll talk through men/women of God, He’ll talk through your parents, He’ll talk through your loved ones, and more.

Job 33:14-17 World English Bible (WEB)
14 For God speaks once,
    yes twice, though man pays no attention.

15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on men,
    in slumbering on the bed;
16 Then he opens the ears of men,
    and seals their instruction,
17 that he may withdraw man from his purpose,
    and hide pride from man.

Be willing to let God change your mind…

God will try His best to speak to you, whether it be through a vision, a dream, or through people. But, don’t be like an ordinary person and ignore what He says as the above verse states. Listen to your Heavenly Father and heed His advice as any child would do.

Therefore, trust God and trust that what He says is the way to go. If He tells you to start showing more love towards others, then do it. If He tells you to be more organized, then do it, if He tells you to take a risk, then do it. Seek God and ask Him for His advice, let His life-giving words minister to you and obey them no matter whoever God uses to speak to you.

Romans 10:17 King James Version (KJV)
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

By Andre Wijesekera

Staying Humble In A World of Idolized Pride

Don't be a proud pomeranian

The world makes it very easy to retain pride and to not stay humble. And one of the greatest temptations a person can face is to allow pride to fester in their lives. Pride is harmful and can destroy relationships, progress, and the people who hold onto pride. It is vital for the sake of your mental health, to let go of pride but that isn’t so easy. So, continue reading to find out what the Bible says about staying humble and how God wants us to forsake pride.

Why Pride is a Dangerous Game to Play

You must know that pride is a horrible and rigged game to play. You cannot expect to hold onto pride and success at the same time. You’ll have to drop one or the other in order to retain what’s more important to you. The reason why I talk about this topic is because its danger seems so subtle, but, it’s so damaging and destructive to one’s mental health in the long term.

Don’t hold onto something which destroys you.

Proverbs 16:18 World English Bible (WEB)
18 Pride goes before destruction,
    and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

But, what’s pride? Pride is when a person sees himself/herself as better than others and sets his/her value on his/her accomplishments. And as you see in the above verse, God warns us through His Word that pride is a prerequisite for destruction and here’s why.

Firstly, pride disables a person’s ability to heed to wise counsel. What I mean by this is that when you decide to magnify yourself, it creates in you a newfound hatred towards the advice of others.

Ask yourself this question and be honest with yourself. Do you find it easy to reject advice which you know to be true but you reject it nevertheless? For your own sake, do what is wise, listen to what wisdom says.

Proverbs 11:2 World English Bible (WEB)
When pride comes, then comes shame,
    but with humility comes wisdom.

Secondly, pride ruins relationships. People naturally hate to see pride in others. So, when the closest ones to you see that you don’t listen to them or that you demean others based on your status, this makes them upset.

Proverbs 29:23 World English Bible (WEB)
23 A man’s pride brings him low,
    but one of lowly spirit gains honor.

And finally, pride distracts you from keeping your eyes on Jesus. When you focus on your efforts and yourself, this defeats the mission God has called you to. Jesus said that to follow Him, you must deny yourself. You must deny your pride to follow Jesus.

Luke 9:23 World English Bible (WEB)
23 He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me

Therefore, God does not like pride, people tend to not like pride, and you should not like pride because it does nothing but harm to yourself.

Staying Humble Before God

So, what is God saying in all of this, stay humble. Staying humble may be one of the most difficult things to do but it’s an essential step in everyone’s life. Because God makes it clear that if you hold onto how good you are and how successful you have made yourself, you leave no space for Him.

When one hosts pride and gives it a room to stay in his/her heart, it takes the whole space. It is a poison to your relationship with God.

Psalm 10:4 World English Bible (WEB)
The wicked, in the pride of his face,
    has no room in his thoughts for God.

And God paid a very high price to establish that relationship with you by coming in the flesh as Jesus Christ and dying on your behalf so that you would not be condemned for your past sins. If you have not yet entered that relationship with God, then accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour which I talk more about in this post. So, don’t jeopardize your relationship with God by idolizing pride. Give glory to God and not yourself.

Jesus calls you to live in a loving relationship with Him!

When you make lots of money or get good grades or win a friendly competition, stay humble and give credit to God in Christ Jesus. In everything, do not puff up yourself and how you did it but give glory to Jesus as He empowers you with the grace to live your life.

1 Corinthians 10:31 World English Bible (WEB)
31 Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

The bottom line is to not stand in His way by living in pride but stand with Him as you stand with His humility.

James 4:6 World English Bible (WEB)
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Staying Humble Before Others

Furthermore, the Bible wants us to be humble even when we deal with people. Jesus demonstrated humility and stressed on the importance of staying humble. There’s a beauty to when you see someone who is humble. And I believe that humility is one of the reasons why Jesus is so beautiful in His personality.

Before Jesus went to bear the sins of mankind, He dealt with the issue of pride. He washed the feet of his disciples as if He was a servant and then He said something phenomenal!

John 13:14-17 World English Bible (WEB)
14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should also do as I have done to you. 16 Most certainly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither is one who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Jesus is our example!

Now, first get what God is not saying here. He is not commanding us to wash the feet of people, otherwise, the epistles and the letters from the apostles would have stressed on the practice of washing the feet of others. There’s no harm in washing the feet of others but the point Jesus was getting across was to be humble.

He gave us an example to be humble and He showed us that when we are humble with each other, there is a special blessing for that.

How to stay humble? It’s simple, surrender your pride to God and whenever you do something successfully, give the glory to God. When you deal with people, ask God for the grace to see them as He sees them and recognize that the same God who knitted you in the womb has knit them, too. Ask Jesus for the grace to love others and when you love others, pride will have no open door to enter your heart.

1 Peter 4:10 World English Bible (WEB)
10 As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms.

Use His gift of grace to stay humble and enjoy your life with Jesus.

By Andre Wijesekera